Friday, May 25, 2018

The list

Someone commented on my last blog post that I should make a list of fourteen books to leave on a hired narrowboat, so that whoever was on the boat would find at least one book that suited their taste. It's such a hard task, but here goes...

A comedy - a Jeeves and Wooster book by P.G. Wodehouse

A crime novel - by Ian Rankin or Christine Poulson

An intelligent chick-lit book, such as Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding or You Before Me by Jojo Moyes or Plotting for Beginners by Sue Hepworth and Jane Linfoot

A biography - Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self

A poetry anthology - Staying Alive  ed. by Neil Astley, or Lifesaving Poems ed. by Anthony Wilson

A book on politics - The Establishment by Owen Jones

A thriller - please help me here!

A historical novel - The Siege by Helen Dunmore or The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

A book of short stories - Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor

A memoir - I am Malala

A non-fiction book (I nearly forgot this category as I don't read non-fiction)  - something readable about the history of canals

A Charles Dickens novel - you pick, as I am not a Dickens fan

Two contemporary novels - I suggest Under the Same Stars by Tim Lott and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strouut, which are both accessible literary fiction.

So what do you think?



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your list is interesting but I don’t understand your comment about non-fiction when you’ve already mentioned three non-fiction categories: biography, poetry and political comment. I hadn’t thought about short stories, but of course they are perfect for the boat because you can read one quickly and still have time to enjoy the passing countryside, whereas a gripping page-turner would create a dilemma and raise the question as to why you are on the boat in the first place.

Sue Hepworth said...

When I think of non fiction I think of FACTS.
I also realised that I don’t have a travel book in here.